Washing 2 year old's hair - Any tips?

addob

Hello,

I'm looking for some tips for washing my 2 year old son's hair. It's starting to become a nightmare when we have to do it once a week so that even when he sees that there's no bubbles in the bath he knows what's coming and kicks off before he's even in.

How do you get the water over your child to rinse without him just loosing it?

Thanks!

theLuggage

Try washing a toy's hair/head as play beforehand and getting him to help to wash the toy's hair or head or whatever.

cyning

Would you put bubbles in the bath and just have a container to put water in? We always have bubbles!

Our way around this was showers: and the clevamamma clevarinse in the bath. She just got used to it in the end: it just has to be done.

messrs

would you allow the child to do it himself, have a sud free basin of water in the bath & get a plastic jug and get the child to pour the water over his head himself? then you do the washing part and again get the child to pour it over his head till its all done, maybe play a game, get him to guess how many jugs of water it will take to wash his hair and then you count while he pours?

pwurple

We gave her a little facecloth to hold over her eyes while we put the water on for a rinse.

When she got older (3 now) she stands up and we turn the shower on, she looks up at the ceiling (so the water flows back over her head) and steps back into the shower herself to rinse.

Neyite

Its usually a team effort using speed and distraction. I tell him I'm washing his hair, Dad usually stands up blowing bubbles for him to try to catch (so toddler has to look up at him, and the water drains back,) and I put a facecloth over his eyes for the front bit.

I use a pea sized bit of shampoo though, he whimpers and wails a bit but once its done he is grand again -I'd say the rinsing takes 10 seconds, if that.

Pablodreamsofnew

I put two toy watering cans in the bath! and I use one of them to gradually rinse his hair after i soap it. I don't rinse it straight away!! Just every couple of minutes when he is distracted with bath toys I rinse a little at a time. I think it frightens them getting water in their eyes. Also some shampoos can sting so bad!! even baby ones, so maybe change brand. If he is too scared to get into bath at all, maybe make a big deal about buying him a bath toy? Tesco have some really cheap ones!

messrs

have you tried one of those caps, not sure of the name of them, you put the on the childs head and when you wash their hair the water runs of it and doesn't go down their face. I got one before in €2 shop

Toots

My fella has loads of hair so once he was about 10 months old those jugs etc just wouldn't cut it so we had to use the shower head. He hated getting his hair washed no matter what we did, so I figured we could have 10 minutes of crying while I dumped jug after jug of water over his head, or we could have 1 minute of screeching while I used the shower. The shower won out! He's just turned 3 and I've found the best way for us is to use the showerhead but take off the 'sprinkler' bit so that it's just the hose, that way I've got more control and can direct it over his head better. He 'points his chin to the ceiling' and closes his eyes while I'm washing it out, now he'll usually whinge a bit while I'm doing that, but once it's finished he's fine. He gets loads of praise and on the times that he doesn't get upset, he's chuffed to bits with himself and goes in to tell his dad how brave he was in the bath.

IvyTheTerrible

We find with our fella that with things he doesn't like (in particular cutting nails, and showering), if he sees his daddy doing the same thing, he's happy to do it then!

addob

Thanks, Will try a few of these, we have the special scoop and tried various shampoos and the shower freaks him out.

He's a scardy cat at the best of times

Thank you!

Capt_cack

Possibly try a pair of swimming goggles, my nephew enjoyed putting these on when it came to hair washing time.

Capt_cack

Possibly try a pair of swimming goggles, my nephew enjoyed putting these on when it came to hair washing time.

RoboRat

I have been taking my little man (aged 2) swimming and he loves lying back in the pool, now he just lies back in the bath and pretends to swim and washing the hair is simple!

Interrobang

I could never fathom how mine would happily duck under water in the swimming pool, yet flap about if the slightest trickle got on their faces while washing their hair :rolleyes: Thankfully we're past that now, but at the time I found these great - soft, cheap, portable and easy to use as you still have two hands free: http://www.mothercare.ie/bathing-changing/bathing/accessories/mothercare-shampoo-shield.html


If all else fails, what worked for a friend of mine was showing her daughter a couple of ice bucket videos on YouTube and then giving her a little tub for herself. Now the kid happily douses herself, except for when mum or dad does the shampoo rinse. The only trouble now is getting her to stop.